Monthly Archives: August 2016

In print, in an interactive PDF and as an e-pub.

Wilderwitch goes into labour on … when else? Labour Day. And it’s got nothing to do with Phantast Thanatos … at least we don’t think it does. Yet!

In the meantime, for those of you with Adobe Reader or plain old Acrobat — and an extra $10.00 — there’s a website special on the digital edition of “Decimation Damnation” here: http://www.phantacea.com/#pdfDec

Source of Viennese Photo Montage

Though shot in 2010 at a public gallery in Vienna, Austria, it turns out that the otherwise unidentified photo montage used in the cover collage in this row began as a photo taken for the National Geographic’s June 1984 issue and as such can’t be pHanta-used as is.

The subject’s name is Sharbat Gula, at the time (1984) age 12. More on pH-Webworld‘s Summer 2016 entry of Serendipity and …

Rejected full cover for "Decimation Damnation" mini-novel

Background image is a sunset taken at Jericho Beach in Vancouver, July 2015; Easter Island Moai taken from the Web then solarized

Rejected front cover for DecDam

Wilderwitch representative spotted and shot in a Vienna, Austria, city gallery in 2010; Moai used to represent between-space stone gnomes reputed to exist in the Weirdom of Cabalarkon

Did manage to retain the darker version of the cover for use on one or the other of the mini-novel’s digital editions (PDF or e-pub). So hardly a wasted effort.

Took out the face, save for the hair and eyes, of the Afghan Girl and filled in space with Daemonic Desperation graphics. Like result a lot … but may not use it for print to blackness issues. Should be okay for digital editions, though.

The girls had been terrified of Dervish Furie, with his horns and fangs, but had taken an immediate liking to Jervis Murray, he with his darkish, though not altogether jet-black skin and still thick but now trimmed beard. They were in charm mode; were competing with each other trying to tell him how matter transducers kept working despite the fact no one in Cabalarkon knew how to make, let alone service, one anymore. He was distracted, was forever looking around for Wilderwitch, who had yet to show up, and missed most of what Harry’s youngest, Athena, was saying.
“What was that again, Tina? What’re stone gnomes?”
“Gnomes made of stone, silly,” the 6-year old repeated.
“They’re what keeps everything going, Uncle Monster,” elaborated 12-year old Helen, who liked to sound superior and could be quite rude. “Tinny thinks she saw one this morning in the old palace.”

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Which, since she thought she saw it in a refrigerator while ‘stealing’ ice cream as well as for those of you don’t follow Phantacea Publications on Facebook (pHantacea on pHacebook), brings us to this, a variation of which also appeared recently on Serendipity and …:

Neither of which tells us that stone gnomes actually exist. Something does, though, hence — hopefully without giving too much away — this sequence, also from DecDam:

Wilderwitch was still silently cogitating … when they arrived at Raven’s digs. She wasn’t as swift as Johnny or Raven were to realize the walls were no longer the mess she and Furie had made of them; were in fact back to being as good as new. Was barely swift enough to pick up on the significance of Raven’s exclamatory squawks. Wash that birdbrain’s mouth out with soapstone she was thinking when Sundown made another observation.
“And if they’re demons, they’re shape-shifters.”
“Wait a minute there,” the Witch protested. “You’re suggesting I’m a demon?”
“Not at all,” said Sundown, regarding her querulously, through Raven’s eyes and with her perspective. “Should we have been?”
“Of course not. What were you saying then? I must have missed it.”
“Only that stone gnomes must have fixed the walls and stone gnomes have to be demons. Demons are shape-shifters.”